month. Although some farmers have farmlands, they commonly have only small farms. Usually, the production of harvests is not enough to feed the whole family.
This condition is stated by Lapierre in chapter 1: “Such labor then earned only three rupees about thirty U.S. cents a day a
portion of puffed rice and six bidis-a very slim cigarettes made out of tobacco rolled up in leaf.” p.15
Lapierre writes in the novel that the Pals work for zamindar while they wait for the next harvest. Actually, the Pals own their own farm, but they still have to be
agricultural laborer because the harvest from their farm is not enough to feed the entire family, this conditioned described by Lapierre in chapter 3:
“While they waited for the next harvest the men would have to hire out the services to the zamindar, a very aleatory employment, which provided at best
four or five days of work per month, but most of the time only a few hours.” p.15
Besides working as agricultural laborers, farmers without land in India also
work as sharecroppers. They hire the land from zamindars, and then they share the harvest for the payment. Lapierre writes that Prodip Pal and his sons become
sharecroppers in chapter two: “To make up the deficit, Prodip Pal and his sons managed to sharecrop
another plot of land. Although some owners demanded three quarters of the harvest in payment, Prodip was able to retain half of it.”p.9
4.1.1.2. India’s Main Cause of Poverty
During 1960s-1970s many Indians only lived with five cents a day.
Farmers also earned very little money. Although India was the third largest producer of tobacco, bananas, cotton, vegetable and wheat, they still could not fulfill enough
food and proper diet for its people 1971: 106f. These conditions are often caused by
annual disasters such as floods and long dry seasons. Disasters often cause the failure of harvest in India, and then the failure of harvest causes India cannot produce
enough food for the citizens. Flood and long dry season strike India every year because some monsoons fail to arrive in time and some monsoon drop too much rain.
In the novel, it is also mentioned that rainy season often comes late in India. The lateness of rainy seasons causes the low production of farming and sometimes
causes the failure of harvest. Farmers do not have irrigation pump to anticipate this condition. Consequently, in every planting season, all farmers hope that monsoon
will come on time. If monsoons cannot come on time, their crops will fail to grow. When monsoons come late, some farmers are compelled to rent irrigation pump.
However, the cost to rent irrigation pump is so expensive that not all farmers can afford to rent it. Peasants have to spend about six rupees for an hour to rent one
irrigation pump. For poor farmers, six rupees means a lot for them because they can buy four pounds of rice with the money. Every planting season, all farmers
constantly hope that they are not supposed to rent an irrigation pump, but human cannot predict the nature. It means, every time monsoon comes late, they will not
have any other choice except to rent the pump. Most of farmers who do not have much money have to cut down their money for food or to borrow some money from
mahajan usurer in order to rent the pump. Here Lapierre explains the condition of
farmers when the monsoons come late: “Friday June 12 come and went, however, without the slightest cloud.
Throughout the days that followed, the sky remained steely white. Fortunately Hasari had taken the precaution of reserving the irrigation pump.
Unable to afford this luxury, Ajit the Pals neighbor, had already begun to lament his lot. After a few weeks the young shoots in his small rice began to
turn yellow. The village elders delved deep into their memories in an attempt to remember when the monsoon had ever in the past kept them waiting like
this”. p.15
“Yet neither Ganesh nor any of the other gods heard their prayers and Hasari was compelled to hire the irrigation pump. For six hours the pulsating of its
engine brought the lifeblood essential their growth to the shoots in the Pal’s field”. p.16
Besides flood and long dry season, there are other disasters that also often
cause the failure of harvest such as storms, cyclones, and parasites. Parasites often destroy the entire field of rice in midgrowth and storms often destroy vegetables and
coconut trees besides destroy crops. Whereas, vegetables and coconut trees are planted in order to replace rice when farmers run out of rice.
Disasters are only one cause of the failure of harvest. Segal 1965: 184 mentions other causes of the low production of harvest are the farmers do not have
large-scale mechanized farming, with the employment of fertilizers and pesticides. Indian farmers do not have land organizations and enough money to increase yields
significantly. Whereas, if Indian farmers have organization lands, more efficient equipment, and more money; they can find solution to avoid parasites and to avoid
the failure of harvest when rainy seasons come late. Without more efficient equipment and more money Indian farmers cannot do anything to avoid parasites and
to do something increase the production of rice. When farms cannot produce rice, they only eat vegetables and fruits which they plant for food store. Here Lapierre
describes how the farmers try to survive when the farm cannot produce rice: “When they would run out of rice, they would survive on the fruits from the
three coconut trees and on the vegetables from the high ground that required very little irrigation, such as the “serpent ground” a kind of cucumber that
measured up to six feet in length, marrows, and giant radishes. There were also the fruits from the jackfruit tree, some of which weight nearly four
pounds. The Pals were thus able to survive for two years.” p.9
“During the third year, however, disaster struck once more. A parasite destroyed the entire field of rice in the midgrowth. To overcome this
catastrophe, the father set out on the path that led to the only brick house of the village.” p.9
Mahajan
usurer, the person who have the only brick house of the village, is another factor that indirectly causes poor Indians becomes poorer than before.
Mahajans are usurers, which often make the condition of the farmers becomes worse
than before. Peasants and other people usually go to mahajans to borrow money or to mortgage their jewels or their lands. They do not have any other choice. Most of
other villagers also have the same difficulty so that they cannot ask others for help. All people know the consequences of borrowing money from mahajans. Mahajans
will ask high interest on a loan, so that people who borrow money from them cannot pay the loan back. The borrowers have to work very hard in order to pay the loan and
to retain their jewel or their land. Only a few people who can turn the money back to these mahajans because the interest is unreasonable. The high rate of interest does
not make the borrowers dare to refuse. They accept all the rules and try to fulfill what the mahajans want. No one hopes to get their jewels or their lands back after
mortgaging them to mahajans. The sum loaned by the mahajan represented only half the actual value of the
items, at a rate of interest that was astronomical: 5 percent per month, 60 percent for one year The poor woman had little hope of seeing her jewels
again-jewels that she had worn with such pride on feast days during the forty years of her life with Prodip Pal.” p.11
4.1.1.3. What Poverty Cause to People
